it's been so long and this is also bloody long y'all!

classic me, no update on my vacation whatsoever. those trips are usually utterly exhausting and i honestly take like, at least a week or two before i get my bearings on daily routines back. yeah, work. and stuff.

sharing with you guys about my trip was the thing that i really wanted to do come this weekend. but it's already monday am and here i am rambling nonsense still. what a way to try making a living as a travel writer someday. hah, so not working. and i also wanted to do that ipod playlist tag (courtesy of my royal high-heels-ness kimoira). however, those will have to come a bit later.

this evening i went to my boss' mother's funeral. it was my first chinese funeral and i was only worrying about what to wear/not wear to make sure that i dont offend the family with anything that might. the wake was held at this funeral service place next to kwong tong cemetary in jalan sg besi. it was amazing, i think. not the service, but the place. it was actually very serene albeit being just beside the highway. it was as if you couldn't really hear the buzzing of cars next door. and the view was breathtaking - the kl and twin towers both standing majestically in the background. good thing that it was a clear sky for us tonight. were I not a Muslim, i would have believed that this is the way to leave life on earth. i dont know..i guess it felt just perfect. the family's all there and there's a certain atmosphere that makes you feel that nature is also paying you its respects and bidding you a warm, happy farewell towards the journey of the afterlife.

i met my boss' husband for the first time tonight. a very nice man indeed. humble and warm despite the clear signs that he's way above you. i barely know my boss since i've only been at this new place for 3 months, but i could see just now how both their characters complement each other well and in a very hard to describe good way. how he talks about her when she's not there, how she also does the opposite. wow...this is what i want 20, 30 years down the road should i settle down with someone. someone whom i dont just settle with and him likewise. boss apparently always mentions that he's the pillar of her strength. and i believe that i saw the love towards her glistened in his eyes.

tonight i also learnt how poor my boss was when she was growing up. i felt that somehow my parents, who were also poor when they were young, were perhaps better off in the old days. i never heard my mom or dad say they didnt have money to buy books, or that they had to get exercise books from the school. never a tale of grit and gruesome days even if they were far from being rich. here i am looking at my boss, who did not go to some ivy league school (not that my parents do either) being all polished and with the charisma of someone who did. she must have gone through really hard times building her way up since young and especially to have garnered the current position in the firm. prove that you can definitely say 'so what?' and plough your way through beyond what people (and sometimes you yourself) think of what you're capable of. i'm suddenly ashamed with my being easily frustrated when things dont go my way lately. i used to embrace tough times (in my own annoying people-cant-stand-me way) but now this huge part of me just wilts down when something 'unfavourable' unexpectedly happens. gosh, someone slap me in the face please! (yeah, self pep talk you probably say but really 'sowhatit's my blog!' hahaha)

so there... that's what i wanna share with you for tonight. leaving life in peace, loving and being loved, and time's not so bad after all :)

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i'm totally channelling natalie dee with her sometimes neverending blog posts at one go. so here goes the tag game.


INSTRUCTIONS:
a. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
b. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
c. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN, NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
d. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
e. Put this on your blog.

*playlist english, malay/indo, retro, run baby run

1. If someone says, "Is this okay?"
> Come out and play - Offspring
(tak perlu cantik2 kalau setakat nak gi senam. tshirt buruk sama seluar cukup. toss da lipgloss out Pamelo!)

2. How would you describe yourself?
>I've got you under my skin - frank sinatra
(soooooo senang dibaca walaupun complicated. adakah aku senang dimanipulate? ye mungkin, especially oleh kedai2 di soping mall.)

3. What do you like in a guy/girl?
>Dreaming of you -Selena
(still day dreaming of him lah. no concrete answer)

4. How do you feel today?
>The first night - Monica
(aaahhhh....sangat x-rated kehkehkeh)

5. What is your life's purpose?
>Glycerine - Bush
(Don't let the days go by. Oh yeahhhh!!!!)

6. What is your motto?
>Come on 'n ride it (the train) - Quad City DJs
(mungkinkah saya patut forgo the rm6 daily parking+petrol+toll and naik komuter pegi keja?)

7. What do your friends think of you?
>Burning down the house - Tom Jones & The Cardigans
(kepala temper, hati emosi tak hengaaaaaaaaaat hahahhahahah)

8. What do you think of your parents?
>Run the Show (Kat deLuna ft Shaka Dee)
(ya betul. dah nak masuk 28 pun saya rasa macam emak ayah tgk saya mcm saya 18 tahun)

9. What do you think about very often?
>Umbrella -Rihanna
(eyy eyy gi konset Rihanna 2 minggu lagik dgn Kimoira!!!!!)

10. What is 2+2?
>Just a friend - Mario
(your maths may not match mine cos we're just friends. hohhhh...ada apa2 ke?)

11. What do you think of your best friends?
>wait for you - elliott yamin
(salah salaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh sbb gua yg selalu sampai lambat!!!)

12. What do you think of the person you like?
>kasih - Dayang Nurfaizah
(malam ini kasih teringat aku padamu...ni yg sedih ni)

13. What is your life?
>You're my everything - Santa Esmeralda
(siapakah yang anda rasa 'YOU' itu? mungkinkah engkau oyett?? hahaha)

14. What do you want to be when you grow up?
> From the bottom of my heart - Britney Spears
(Eh tipulah lagu ni. Takmolah. takmo takmo takmo. I dont wanna miss 'The One That Got Away' when I grow up/old) :(

15. What do you think of when you see the person you like?
>Have you ever - Brandy
(Have you ever been in love, been in love so bad...you'd do anything to make them understand. Have you ever had someone steal your heart away... ADUH MAKIN LAMA MAKIN JIWANG PLAYLIST AKU NI)

16. What will you dance to at your wedding?
>From the Heart - Another Level
(perfecttttttttttt! yes yes yes!!!! oh korang tolonglah tau lagu ni. hoho nak nangis gembira ni)

17. What will they play at your funeral?
>Love Is - Vanessa Williams & Brian McKnight
(They say it's a blessing, They say it's a gift, They say it's a miracle, And I believe that it is,
It conquers all, But it's a mystery...)

18. What is your hobby/interest?
>Girl you know it's true - Milli Vanilli
(no no, i didnt mean 'I like GIRLS and you know it's true'! Oh Tuhan Ya Ampuuuuuun)

19. What is your biggest fear?
>Get here - Oletta Adams
(I dont care how you get here, just get here if you can. There are hills and mountains between us. I need you closer... haaa aku sedih la buat tag ni, buatnya orang tu tak mau datang? *air mata tetiba keluar mencurah2*)

20. What is your biggest secret?
>Bubbly - Colby Callait
(Starts in my nose and it crinkles my toes. Geli tak? :P)

21. What do you think of your friends?
>Shackles (Praise You) - Mary Mary
(Yep I'm gonna praise you cos you are all MY PILLARS OF STRENGTH!!!!!!)

22. What will you post this as?
>Ebb tide - Frank Sinatra
(From the Cambridge Dictionary - the regular movement of the sea away from the coast. Adakah regular bermakna aku ini sebenarnya normal walaupun kadang2 ada sikit huru hara dalam kepala? Ponder ponder...)

tag dimajukan kepada:
- alien
- yin ping
- hajime

*kantoi hati jiwang tengok playlist ni

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HIGHLIGHTS OF MY SIEM REAP - ANGKOR WAT TRIP

Most of you have probably seen the gazillion pics I posted on my Facebook. Adakah kamu sudah muntah darah melihat gambar2 itu? Here I'm sharing you some more (or less):

DAY 1
Images of poverty stricken life on the Tonle Sap Lake.

basketball court di atas air

licensed to row. age matters not.

It's the dry season now so we could see the bits of land here and there. Come the wet season, tonle sap will rise high and according to our guide (Sophean) the houses move away with the current. I hope I didn't hear wrong. If you're going Siem Reap-ing I'd say skip the lake because it's nothing more than just smelly water and heart-wrenching poverty to look at. It really saddened me to see the people living afloat on water like that. They apparently get sick often as they solely depend on the water from the lake. It's awfully dirty. My babe, Natd, saw someone doing 'business' atop his pelantar luar rumah. Must be a good day for him, u know..berak happily under the sun. eeewww...

Banteay Srei Temple - 30km++ off Angkor Wat

Almost all temples have ablution ponds like this one. They are filled to the brim during the wet season. Now only murky water remains.

These aren't the real guards. The authentic ones have either been illegally taken away by God-knows-who or transferred to museums.

This is the only apsara dancer who would wink at ya! Gatai betui... :P

Banteay Srei means 'citadel of women'. Devoted to all ya laydees out there! It's built from fine pink sandstone. Very nice and the carvings are meticuluously errr...carved. It's the only one in pink sandstone, all other temples are in the (regular , i guess) sandstone. We took the indiana jones way to get to this temple. 60km++ return trip on tuk tuk along the dusty country road. Siem Reap is basically heavily dusty all over anyway. But the weather was great that day albeit a bit cloudy towards the later afternoon.

Day 2

We started day 2 with, ehem, shopping. Went to the old market and bought loads of stuff. We thought that we've got more than everything we needed for ourselves and peeps back home at cheap cheap. Unfortunately a trip to the night market later made us discovered that it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay nicer and has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more selection to choose from and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy cheaper than the bloody old market. Every other blog post on SR and the guide said that Old Market is cheaper. You are all wrong people. WAY WRONG!

After lunch we resumed our temple trekking.

Angkor Wat from our moving tuk tuk

Preah Khan - built by King Jayavarman VII, dedicated to his dad.

All the Gods' heads gone. Probably sold off at the Thai border years ago.

That's us in the court. In the middle used to have a sword but now it's gone lah. behind us is what used to be a library.

The lady makes sure Prah Khean is clean. Ain't she the cutest thing ever? She was also very friendly. Best je kitorang sengih2 kat dia sebab tak paham sepatah haram pun dia cakap apa hehehe...

Ta Prohm

Made famous by Angie Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The temple was abandoned by the King and that's how all the trees crept up and through the (hundred and thousands of) years they keep growing. Yes, these trees are still alive. Come the wet season there are actually leaves.




okeh saya adalah officially penat lama buat blog ni. esok lah sambung balik. sori bos! hehe...